Palmer method: actress reminisces for a good cause

Friday

Mar 27, 2009 at 2:00 AM

Betsy Palmer has plenty of show biz stories to tell like her nine-month fling with James Dean, getting yelled at by Otto Preminger for turning down a role, and wearing flats so she wouldnít dwarf Paul Newman.

Johanna Crosby

Cape Cod is heaven to Betsy

GOOD-HUMORED GLAMOUR Ė Betsy Palmer will share stories Ė and her sense of humor Ė at a Harwich benefit for Habitat for Humanity this weekend. Betsy Palmer has plenty of show biz stories to tell like her nine-month fling with James Dean, getting yelled at by Otto Preminger for turning down a role, and wearing flats so she wouldnít dwarf Paul Newman. The starís likely to share those and other colorful memories from her long career Sunday afternoon (March 29) during Betsy on Betsy, her one-woman show hosted by Harwich Junior Theatre as a benefit for Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod. 'I love to talk,' said Palmer, 82, speaking from her Manhattan home. Betsy on Betsy is one show the actress doesnít have to rehearse for 'because itís my life,' she said. 'It begins to flow extemporaneously. Itís always fresh and new.' Some of her best memories are tied to Cape Cod. 'I love the Cape and the Cape loves me,' she said. 'Itís always been a joy to come here.' Palmerís performed at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis more times than any other celebrity from the 1950s to 2001. Her first summer stock experience was appearing in Tennessee Williamsí Eccentricities of the Nightingale at Falmouth Playhouse. The playwright flew up to see her on opening night and was the first person in her dressing room to praise her performance. Palmer was a close friend of the late Yarmouthport restaurant owner Jack Braginton-Smith. They appeared in Love Letters for a benefit performance in 2003 and she spoke at his funeral two years later. 'He was a sweet man and I adored him,' she said. 'He had a crush on me.' Palmer acknowledges sheís best known for her stint as a panelist on the TV quiz show Iíve Got a Secret and her role as Jasonís killer mom in the 1980 horror flick Friday the 13th. 'People remember me for the two things Iíve dismissed as being meaningless,' she said with a laugh. 'When I read the film script, I thought, ĎWhat a piece of s---. No one will ever see it.í Thirty years later, people are still talking about it.' But she took the role because she needed a new car. Palmer gets a kick out of making guest appearances at horror conventions where sheís signed autographs on almost everything including a machete and even peopleís bodies. 'I find them absolutely fun to do,' she said. 'I dig people. They come because they love me for that silly woman I played. I make some bread. We take pictures. Itís a trip.' Palmer, who grew up in East Chicago, Ind. never envisioned herself becoming an actress although her teachers were always pushing her into theatrical productions. She attended her motherís business college and worked as a stenographer. After an aptitude test revealed her flair for the arts, she enrolled in the drama school at DePaul University. She arrived in New York in 1951 intent on doing theater. After only five days in the city, she was discovered at a party and landed her first acting job in the daily soap Miss Susan. Several years later, she replaced Faye Emerson on Iíve Got a Secret. 'They thought I was safer than Faye, who was political,' she said. 'I was this sweet young thing.' 'They were a wonderful bunch of people,' she said of fellow panelists Bill Cullen, Bess Myerson and host Gary Moore. 'It was a lovely gift for people to see me without being a characterÖ The show opened all kinds of doors for me.' One of those doors was her role in the 1955 film Mr. Roberts with Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon. Director John Ford was taken off the set 'because he was naughty with drinking,' she recalled. 'Fonda and he had fisticuffs.' Palmerís proud of being part of the Golden Age of Television. 'We never knew it was the golden age of television,' she said. 'There was no tape. It was a great, beautiful thing to be on live. It was like being on stageÖ But lots of weird things happened,' like the night the draperies caught fire on the set in the middle of Sentence of Death on Studio One with James Dean. 'We couldnít stop,' she recalled. 'Water was up to our ankles. I thought we all were going to be electrocuted.' Palmer has one daughter from her 19-year marriage. Sheís been single since 1971 and likes it that way. 'Iím an independent woman,' she said. Fans can expect to see a youthful-looking Palmer Sunday afternoon. 'I donít look ancient,' she said, laughing. 'My body is still slender and I still have a figure. I havenít had a lot of work. I still look like me.' Looking back on her life and career, Palmer says she has no regrets. 'Iíve been most fortunate to be able to do what I love,' she said happily. 'The thing I appreciate most of all is Iím loved by so many people.' Betsy on Betsy will be presented at 2 p.m. March 29 at Harwich Junior Theatre, 105 Division St., West Harwich. Tickets are $25 and include a reception. Proceeds will benefit Habitat of Humanity of Cape Cod. Call 508-432-2002 or visit hjtcapecod.org.